OBJECTIVES: This program provides funding to support research and education activities that invent new computing and networking technologies and that explore new ways to make use of existing technologies. CNS supports two core programs as described below:

Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) – This area supports transformative research on fundamental scientific and technological advances leading to the development of future generation, high performance networks. The scope of the program includes enterprise, core and optical networks, peer-to-peer and application-level networks ; wireless, mobile, and cellular networks; networks for physical infrastructures; and sensor networks. The focus is on innovative and possibly radical network architectures, algorithms, protocols, and technologies that are responsive to the evolving requirements of current and yet to be discovered technologies, services and applications operating in wired and wireless environments, and bring the network closer to autonomy, where the need for human intervention is minimal. The NeTS program seeks fundamental scientific understanding of and advances in large-scale complex, heterogeneous networks, including but not limited to, resource allocation and traffic engineering, topology discovery and control, context-aware service discovery, naming and addressing, routing and congestion control, opportunistic networking, network and mobility management at different levels and granularities, virtualization and programmability at-scale and at all levels of the network architecture.

Proposers are invited to submit proposals in three project classes, which are defined as follows: Small, Medium, and Large. Small Projects are well suited to one or two investigators (PI and one co-PI or other Senior Personnel) and at least one student and/or postdoc. Medium Projects are well suited to one or more investigators (PI, co-PI and/or other Senior Personnel) and several students and/or postdocs. Large Projects are well suited to two or more investigators (PI, co-PI(s), or other Senior Personnel), and a team of students and/or postdocs.

Medium and Large project descriptions must be comprehensive and well-integrated, and should make a convincing case that the collaborative contributions of the project team will be greater than the sum of each of their individual contributions. Rationale must be provided to explain why a budget of this size is required to carry out the proposed work. Since the success of collaborative research efforts are known to depend on thoughtful coordination mechanisms that regularly bring together the various participants of the project, a Collaboration Plan is required for all Medium and Large proposals.

Please see the program announcement below for further program details.

ELIGIBILITY RESTRICTIONS: In any contiguous September through December period, an individual may participate as PI, Co-PI or Senior Personnel in no more than two proposals submitted in response to the coordinated solicitation (where coordinated solicitation is defined to include the Computer and Network Systems [CNS]: Core Programs, the Information and Intelligent Systems [IIS]: Core Programs and the Computing and Communication Foundations [CCF]: Core Programs solicitations). No exceptions will be made.

FUNDING INFORMATION: The NSF anticipates making approximately 80-120 awards with a total budget of $60 million each year. Small Projects have total budgets up to $500,000 for durations of up to three years. Medium Projects have total budgets ranging from $500,001 to $1.2 million for durations up to four years. Large Projects have total budgets ranging from $1,200,001 to $3 million for durations of up to five years.

REMARKS: Applications must be submitted electronically using either the NSF FastLane system or Grants.gov. Collaborative proposals must be submitted via FastLane. For more information about FastLane, or to register as a FastLane user, please contact India Adams (adamsi@bu.edu) or A. B. Effgen (abeffgen@bu.edu)in the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) at x3-4365. Information about Grants.gov for BU Investigators can be obtained on the OSP web site at: http://www.bu.edu/osp/proposal-preparation/electronic-submission/. In addition, for investigators interested in submitting proposals via Grants.gov, NSF has published the NSF Grants.gov Application Guide which may be found online at: http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/docs/grantsgovguide.pdf. Investigators should contact the OSP Assistant Director assigned to their school or department as soon as possible to coordinate submission through either FastLane or Grants.gov.

Complete program guidelines and application material (NSF 11-555 and NSF GPG 11-1) may be obtained from the web site listed above or from the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP). Please distribute this notice to any faculty or staff members who might be interested in the information. For more information, please contact the OSP at X3-4365 or ospinfo@bu.edu, or visit the OSP web site at http://www.bu.edu/osp.